Jeep-eagle Dealership Settles Suit With Women

$177,500 To Be Shared For Sexual Harassment

Eight former employees, including two young women who were teenagers at the time, will share an award of $177,500, which a McHenry auto dealership has agreed to pay to settle a sexual harassment suit.

McHenry Jeep-Eagle, 3017 W. Illinois Highway 120, McHenry, has agreed to pay the eight women individual awards ranging from $7,500 to $41,500, depending on the extent and severity of the harassment, on charges dating back to 1991, according to Jean Kamp, an attorney with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which brought the suit.

The incidents ranged from propositioning and offensive comments to inappropriate touching and patting, according to Kamp. Two of the victims were saleswomen who had "extremely offensive language" directed at them, often in front of customers, Kamp said.

Kamp said five of the women approached the EEOC between February and July 1994, charging a manager at McHenry Jeep-Eagle--a brother of the dealership's owners--with verbal and physical harassment. Three other victims were located during the commission's investigation and added to the suit.

An attorney for two of the women, Cynthia Hyndman, declined to elaborate on the charges brought by her clients but indicated she was pleased with the settlement.

EEOC is charged with enforcing laws against employment discrimination under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Kamp said the Jeep-Eagle case "involved the type of pervasive, ongoing sex harassment which EEOC will challenge under its national enforcement plan."

Added John Hendrickson, regional attorney for EEOC's Chicago office: "The amount of money McHenry Jeep-Eagle is going to be paying under the decree . . . ought to be another heads-up signal that sexual harassment is expensive. It can be a disaster for an employer's bottom line."

Kamp said that only the dealership, not the manager, was charged. "Under Title VII, we cannot sue individuals," she said.

Kamp said the maximum amount that may be awarded to an individual is $50,000.